


This is how

by Hieiandshino



Series: Velocity is speed with a direction [1]
Category: Avengers (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, X-Factor (Comics), X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Erik is a Father, Friends With Benefits, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Not exactly friends but you get it, Sexual Content, The Talk, with a few descriptions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-05
Updated: 2014-08-05
Packaged: 2018-02-11 14:21:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,435
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2071599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hieiandshino/pseuds/Hieiandshino
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pietro and Tony eventually fuck. Pietro argues with Tony, Tony accidentally hurts Pietro, TMZ breaks the news, the Avengers hold a press conference and explain the difference between the accident and the media coverage, and Magneto comes to protect his son's integrity. In the end, they are still the same jerks.</p>
<p>(Unrevised work)</p>
            </blockquote>





	This is how

**Author's Note:**

  * For [DuendeJunior](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DuendeJunior/gifts), [harcourt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/harcourt/gifts).



> Marvel (all media types) and TMZ does not belong to me.
> 
> Set after _All New X-Factor #1, Magneto #1_. Some spoilers from _Avengers #25_ (as in, Superior Spider-Man and Wolverine are taken off of the team).
> 
> This fanfic was unrevised and, because my first language isn't English, there will be mistakes. As soon as I have the revised work, I'll edit it.
> 
> Many thanks to DuendeJunior for helping me with this fanfic. For that reason, it's yours. Thank you so much for always find the time to listen to me rant about my crazy ideas. Also, huge set of thanks to harcourt, who also deserves this fanfic for helping me think of Tony and Pietro as a couple. Some things changed from the original concept, and I hope you enjoy. You're awesome!

This is how people discover Tony Stark is bisexual: the media catches him kissing a very young, very British male model, drunk out of his mind, in a Valentine's Day charity ball, in a place that should be private and paparazzi-free. His tongue is deep inside the guy's mouth, their crotches are lined and he stumbles a little when the other pulls back to breathe. They don't go back to any of their places — though the man clearly wants to — because at that particular moment of his life, Tony still thinks he likes only to kiss men and fuck women.

That’s what he says to the media when they ask and it soon becomes Hollywood’s new favorite trend. Rogers thinks it will affect the Avengers; Janet says it’s all about his daddy issues; Pym confirms it by making calculations and charts to confirm what his girlfriend said; and Hawkeye tells him that, if he keeps up with this, he can nail both the Maximoff twins in the future. Stark laughs, but then comments about Pietro's legs and Wanda's breasts and knows he'll spend many nights wishing to see an amalgam of them both ( _her name will be Lorna Dane, in the future, but she'll have a boyfriend and she'll be a kid in your eyes. And by the time Tony officially meets her, he is already with one twin — even if they aren’t really together_ together).

Neither Pietro nor Wanda say anything.

.

This is how Tony notices he is interested in one Maximoff instead of both: the last lights of the day coldly kiss his face after the siege of Asgard is broken. Their enemies are under arrest — every one of them that joined Osborn to not only destroy a city of gods, but also that decided to impersonate a good hero. Bullseye asks about Daredevil, laughing his ass off; Karla Sofen asks if she can be Moonstone again; Daken is taken away by his father so they can talk about something. Wolverine has this haunted face and Tony knows his son won’t go to prison.

They are applauded by their efforts by people who long lost their hope in them. Steve smiles and gives a speech about how they are back from the shadows and how they will fix everything Osborn ( _probably_ ) ruined. He talks about making this world better and a new golden age for all superheroes. More Avengers teams, he cites. Better and with purposes to not only defend the world of evil creatures and enemies, but to help build a better future.

The city of Asgard is rubble and blood spattered. He sees the Young Avengers close by and the way they aren’t shaking in ways they should be. Maybe those kids will do better, in the future. Tony hopes they do, because Steve and he did so many mistakes they now have to fix. If they are going to succeed them, they will have much to do. The dust that falls over his armor hurt his eyes. Tony was hit by something next to his right eye during the battle and he feels that the blood has dried. The flesh around it is swollen, sweat falls from his hair, like tears many months ago fell from his eyes, but he can finally smile and think that it’s finally over. That is when the dust moves suddenly and he coughs before a bottle of water, cold and sinful on the middle of the desert, appears next to him. The hand that holds it for him is Pietro’s and he looks serious and tired. “Here.” He says.

“Where did you get that from?”

Pietro smirks, looking away from Asgard’s ruins, at the direction opposite to the one Tony’s facing. “From one of the trucks that are coming right now to help the injured and bring water and food for those who’ll stay and help clean the city. They are also bringing food to us, apparently.”

“Why did you bring it to me?”

“I didn’t bring specifically to _you._ ” Pietro says and glances at Cassie Lang, who is drinking water next to Vision, a half-eaten sandwich on her other hand. Pym also has a bottle of water, like Choi and the rest of his team. The Young Avengers have each one bottles too, but Speed has more food than anyone else, probably because he needs to eat more. _You’re protecting Wanda’s children_ , Tony thinks and smiles a little, _You never change when it comes to family, Pietro_. “But you seem like you are ready to faint.”

“I am, thanks.” He says and lifts the bottle as a salute, like he used to do with alcohol, before taking a long gulp. Pietro watches him for a second, head tilted slightly. The last rays of sunlight create shadows on his face, but his pale green eyes shine brightly, dangerously. It takes the breath of Tony for a different reason and he remembers the young days where he thought Pietro and Wanda as attractive enough and looks down, for a moment, to his legs. They are slender and strong and are capable of so much and at such speed it makes Tony wonder how far they can go, really. After all, if he thinks about it, Tony notices all his family is _too powerful_ : Magneto is hellish strong; Wanda was too, but she couldn’t handle her powers; the youngest sister has enough power to deal with her problems by herself; and he has seen Wanda’s twins fight. He wishes he could _measure_ their powers and maybe he can: “How fast are you?”

Pietro pauses for a moment. “Fast.” He says simply and after a pause, he confesses. “I do not know for sure.”

“We should find out.” Tony says and his brain already thinks of layouts of machines that will certainly help discover how far Quicksilver can go; how fast he can run. “After everyone calms down and we sleep for a few months.”

The mutant smirks for a moment, playfully. “One would say you are getting old.”

“Shut up.” Tony snorts, though he _feels_ old. “Not everyone can be as restless as you.”

“True.” Pietro admits. “If they were, things would be interesting, to say the least.” He then turns around and walks away.

“Is it a ‘yes’, then?” Tony screams after him and Pietro just waves in a way that says ‘goodbye’, but it can also mean ‘we’ll see’.

Clint sits next to him, groaning about how sore he is and fast food, before he looks at Tony. “It’s been a while since I saw you an’ Quickie talkin’.” He then looks down at Tony’s bottle of water and steals it to finish it himself. “Jesus, this is best thing I’ve ever drank. Where did you get this?”

Tony shrugs. “Pietro gave it to me. He said more is coming our way.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. He said I needed it.” Something clicks, then. “He called me old, before you came.”

“Everyone’s old for him.” Clint admits and then cackles at something his imagination conjured. “But you must be a _dinosaur_.”

“Shut up.” He grunts and feels compelled to kill both Pietro and Clint.

Clint chuckles and only stops making fun of him when Cap steals Tony so they can start planning the future. In his head, the machines he’ll use with Pietro never stop building themselves. Tony tells himself it’s just because he wants to help protect the world; that after Wanda this specific family can’t be left alone; but a part of Tony knows very well he would never build a machine to measure the Scarlet Witch’s powers or Magneto’s. First because Magneto would never agree and Wanda still is missing, and second because he is _Iron_ Man and he never cared much about magic. That’s why they have Stephen Strange on the Avengers. Now, velocity equals distance divided by time, and that’s something every scientist should work with or want to acquire an in-depth understanding about it.

And he wants that knowledge, all right.

He wants everything.

.

This is how things start between them, because things always start with Tony: he doesn’t remember all the details, but he knows they were doing some tests. Though he is a little shit, Pietro does what he is told and the results are satisfying. Henry McCoy seems to be in love every time he observes a new trial and writes like mad all possible ideas for more tests or articles on his notepad, because, poor Henry, he still loves writing thing in paper instead of a screen. “Oh my stars and gathers” is what he says the most and makes Tony smile, because it means Pietro surprised them again.

He likes surprises. Good surprises. Surprises he is actually _expecting_. And he likes Pietro too. Kind of.

Pietro, who is comfortable around Hank Pym, mostly because they work together and they seem to understand each other. They always talk about their students and Tony is astonished when he discovers there is a girl who looks up to become like Pietro in the future. He isn’t the best of the role models, but the fact she may or may not be Taskmaster’s daughter is, well, it’s understandable. And if she likes Pietro, than it means he likes her back. Tony must have been talking about her when they finally got together ( _not_ together _together, but together_ ), but, really, everything’s a little blurred.

Tony knows they were alone that day, with Pym taking care of the missing students and Henry having to take care of time travel problems — his future and his past, he said, sounding very tired and a little guilty. He also knows that whatever brought them close during the siege of Asgard is now gone, perhaps because Pietro was only pitying Tony’s lack of powers and lack of everything at that point. There is an awkward silence around them and it hangs there to the point they don’t get much done. Pietro is always willing to run, but an environment that is not stable ( _aka there is neither a mutant scientist that is capable of forgiveness nor an old friend_ ) makes him restless, so they both agree to make two or three tests, which they both know are going to be remade, and then Tony leads him to the nearest shower, just to show he is a good host.

Pietro carelessly undress himself without thinking that he is quite the eye-candy and Tony has a moment to think that Wanda’s brother is, _oh no_ , hot. This may or may not lead him into making a pass on _Quicksilver_ , of all mutant speedsters in the world, who looks at him strangely, as if he only noticed Tony now. His green eyes show him he also must have forgotten ( _or never knew_ ) Tony liked men too. Sure, he doesn’t act on it much and in the past, when he did, he liked to blame this fact on alcohol and/or bored days, but with the help of many therapists and a new social order, he was capable of accepting he had a fluid sexuality — a long time ago.

The downside is, he can’t really blame on alcohol and/or boring days ( _though he_ is _bored_ ) anymore. And when Pietro looks at him like that, Tony feels a little self-conscious. Then something happens, and Tony has no idea _what_ did, and soon the shower wets them both, Pietro’s naked body against the tiles, the cold wall against his hot skin making him shiver and try to get closer, impossibly closer to Tony, who is more than welcome to have all that hot, hot body all over and around his. He’s still dressed, his shirt clinging to his body as much as Pietro, and yet he doesn’t want to back off. Pietro’s fingers then finds the zipper of his pants and Tony closes his eyes when a hand strokes his cock, fingers vibrating just enough to make him moan and, wow, he should’ve had sex with a speedster _sooner_.

There is another blur.

Pietro’s back is a vision to his eyes, unmarred skin that twitches with every stroke Tony gives to his length. He is silent, making little noises here and there, and Pietro seems to enjoy when someone pays attention to his nipples. Pietro comes first, though he gets hard again just as fast, and keeps still while Tony thrusts between his ass’s cheeks, slow and hot. Tony thinks over and over again if he should enter him, but decides against it — he doesn’t have a condom, or lube, and he’s pretty sure Pietro is the type of mutant that cannot be trusted if things don’t go the way he wants.

It doesn’t take long for Tony to come, not when he thinks of all the things someone as morally dubious as Pietro may be willing to do in bed, and can’t help himself when his mind leaves him for a second, all thoughts just fading. He bites Pietro’s earlobe, who moans Tony’s last name slowly, gasping right after he pronounces the ‘k’. The water quickly washes them and Tony is courteous enough to pull away after that. They ignore each other through the whole process of cleaning and drying themselves, even though Pietro still is hard and Tony keeps telling the man he really wants to fuck him. Pietro doesn’t leave right away, only says there are better words to represent his desires than ‘fuck’ and blah blah blah, so Tony thinks they may be in the same page, after all.

.

This is how Tony really feels about Pietro: he is the Grinch who stole not only Christmas, but all days of the year. He is well-mannered, intelligent and has a memory that makes Tony want to steal it for himself, but he is also ill-tempered and has serious anger issues. Everything is too slow for him; everyone should stop breathing his air ( _Wanda and Lorna are exceptions, together with Luna, Wanda’s twins and some other people_ ); it’s not his fault people are stupid and have no finesse; the world won’t end today, but if you keep asking for me to swallow your come, you won’t live to see tomorrow etc. Magneto did a number on him too — a serious need to please hidden underneath so much bitterness Tony’s pretty sure his relationship with his father was decent —, so he has this feeling Pietro is emotionally unstable.

Truth is: he doesn’t know how to deal with Pietro. The guy is hot and demanding, what are great assets during sex, but there is no hope for them outside bed and shower and some flat surfaces and maybe a wall or two. He also doesn’t trust Tony at all and vocally tells him that. Tony knows he screwed up a lot of things and a lot of people, but Pietro is exaggerating when he tells him he doesn’t want Tony anywhere near the results of his tests to determine his speed anymore — tests _Tony_ gave the idea; tests he helped design; tests he wants to see and study and maybe understand to help build a better future. He knows Pietro was used by a lot of people and Luke, Strange and Spider-Man told him what happened during that alternate reality Pietro made Wanda create, but it’s not like he will use all he knows _against_ Pietro.

Tony Stark ignores the fact he is already producing weapons to deal with speedsters; ignores the fact he never had much patience with Pietro until now, when he proved he could be useful for him in two ways that he likes very much, and mumbles to himself Magneto’s spawn isn’t dating material.

.

And then the incident comes and ruins everything. For a while.

.

This is how TMZ says it happened: **“EXCLUSIVE! STARK STARKED AGAIN: QUICKSILVER HOSPITALIZED, AFFAIR BETWEEN THE TWO SUPERHEROES FOUND”**

_It’s not a surprise when we find out Tony Stark is banging one of his fellow superheroes._

_It **is** a surprise when it’s a guy (kind of. Not really), but **fellow Avenger Quicksilver is a shock**_.

_We didn’t even know he liked men. His last known relationship was **Princess of the Inhumans and former Avenger Crystal Amaquelin**. Nobody knows what happened with them, but now it looks they haven’t been together for a while._

_Hours ago a source told us it was reported **Quicksilver was hospitalized at the Avenger’s Tower infirmary after an attack from Stark himself. The attack happened on Stark’s private suite and it had to be stopped by an Avenger team.**_

_We tried to reach the Avengers but no one made any commented on that. Stark and Quicksilver are nowhere to be seen._

**_UPDATE!_ ** _A source told us **Quicksilver is no longer part of the Avengers**. It’s possible he was attacked by Stark because he left the team._

**_The Avengers will gather a press conference to explain the facts_ ** _, which makes us believe it’s **a confirmation of their affair and the accident**. Captain America and Black Widow are reported to be part of it. No comments whether Quicksilver or Stark will be part of it._

.

This is how it really happened: They are in his lab, because of course they are. Steve decided to have an out-of-nowhere Avengers meeting and Tony, who had just booty called Pietro, gave this shameful excuse that they were going to do some experiments. In his lab. Serious experiments. Tony never was so glad Wolverine is no longer part of this particular team, though Natasha eyed him, suspicious, but said nothing. It must have been something related to the fact Pietro isn’t an Avenger anymore and _refused_ to come back to the team. As if Serval Industries were really that good. Really.

When Pietro arrived and found out fucking would be called “doing experiments in the private lab”, he smirked in a way that Tony knew would be trouble and asked if Tony really was sure he wanted someone who wasn’t part of the Avengers anymore around the Tower. Clint seconded that, because of course he would, but Tony made the excuse of science having nothing to do with teams sound good enough.

Now, Pietro’s hair is plastered with sweat and messy because his partner likes to grab it when he is on all fours and Tony is naked and covered in love bites. The closed lab reeks of sex and Tony hopes nobody will ever enter the room in the next days, or they would be discovered. Not that he wouldn’t mind — Pietro would bitch about it, though he too doesn’t like to be a secret —, but there is the thrill of not being caught that always excited Tony, since he was very young and had sex with girls to deal with his daddy issues while brushed it off his attraction to boys. To talk about Tony’s issues would be necessary, however, to tell an entire different story about it and he is sure there are some books published that did a good job summarizing it.

When the thing TMZ will totally publish wrong — believe him — happens, they are fighting.

Tony is sitting by his main desk, near the bigger monitors, and he is working on a new armor. Pietro is casually walking around the laboratory, jaw set and glaring at every object on the room, tired of having the same conversation over again. So is Tony: “I just don’t understand why you won’t let me do the tests myself or even see the results of the tests.” Yes, he is starting the discussion again, because Pietro is an asshole and Tony is right.

“Stark, we agreed that I would be the person to determine who could be part of this team or not.” Pietro says and in the blink of an eye he is near a countertop, holding Tony’s armor’s plate in his hands and analyzing it as if it was an object from a museum.

“Yeah, but I thought _I wouldn’t be left out of my own research_.” Tony answers and punctuates each word with a movement of his screwdriver — no metaphors there. He takes his eyes off Pietro again, who is wearing boxers and one of Tony’s clingy and dirty white shirts that become a little loose on his slenderer torso, and turns his attention back to the propellant of his left leg that isn’t working right. In the corner of his eyes, Tony notices Pietro moved yet again to another countertop and is holding one of the armor’s arm. He makes a mental note to fix it, because, during a training session, Clint shot a stupid arrow with some weird foam and it became completely useless, not shooting any repulsor rays. It’s making a weird sound too, as if some wires were fried or melted or something, but they looked completely normal to him, though Tony was distracted because Steve said the words “Avengers meeting” that morning.

“We are having sex.” Pietro explained, again. When Tony looks up, he notices he still is holding the arm. “I don’t want you so close to me.”

Tony snorts. “Close? We barely do anything. We have sex, you bitch about what you don’t want to do; you leave; we see each other when we can.” _What could be a lot more if you were in the goddamn it team_ , but he won’t start _that_ argument now.

Pietro shots him a nasty glance, and Tony ignores him by looking again at the piece of armor in his hands. “You are having sex with me.” He repeated, slowly. “And I don’t trust you. Do you actually believe I’ll let you know about my powers more than you already do? More than _I_ do?” It’s his time to snort. “I’m sure you are already making weapons against people like me.” Tony pauses for a moment and tries to not physically show Pietro is right. Thankfully, Pietro is looking around, probably thinking about taking a shower before heading to his house. Another thing Tony doesn’t want to argue now but it’s true: he doesn’t know where Pietro lives. “You’re being ridiculous.”

“Am I?” Pietro answers him, feigning surprise for a moment, just to scoff and look back at the armor’s piece on his hands. “Maybe I am. Now, tell me: when you took She-Hulk’s powers after she found out you had sent her cousin to space, was Walters being ridiculous too? Haven’t you just slept with her, then?”

It’s a low blow. It’s also true, but Tony has already been forgiven by the Bruce and Jen and he paid for all his sins after the invasion that put Osborn in control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers. He feels his blood boil and, before he can even think about calming down, he is already getting up and shouting: “Will you ever forget about _that_? I know it wasn’t my best moment, but, Jesus, you’re the only person who remembers this!”

Pietro scoffs at that. “Maybe. But it’s funny how everyone still blames me for all that happened to mutantkind, and consequently my sister and my father, when you are so easily forgiven.”

“My mistake wasn’t as big as yours.” _Or your sister’s_ , he thinks, but Tony is a genius for many reasons and he knows that if he mentions Wanda, well, he might as well learn how to breathe under any circumstances, because Pietro’ll drown him on motor oil. Pietro, who shots him a glare that says everything, but who still thinks it’s necessary to use his voice. And he spits out, angry and yet still capable of using that sarcastic matter-of-fact tone of voice: “You betrayed one of your closest allies and then took his cousin’s powers _after_ you slept with her. You knew She-Hulk and Jennifer Walters were always different and, by doing that, you would cause serious problems for her, even psychological ones, and yet you did it because she called you on your—” Pietro doesn’t say it, only hums something and it’s the closest thing to ‘shit’ he will ever say. His body tenses as he represses the words, and he throws the armor from the Iron Man suit on the floor, in anger. Tony doesn’t see, but hears it when it happens — unfortunately to Pietro, he doesn’t see it either, too focused on Tony to look at the metal arm he threw on the floor. And like a weapon on an old movie, as it hits the floor, it sets off and shoots a blast.

Later, Tony’ll understand what happened: when Clint used that arrow, the foam eroded the circuits that made possible for Tony to control the right time for the repulsor rays to set off. Right now, all he can hear is the sound of the blast hitting Pietro directly on one of his legs — because of course it would hurt him there. Too fast, too unexpected, and Pietro falls on the ground, screaming. Tony is by his side in seconds, mumbling all kinds of curses until Pietro locks eyes on him and screams: “I’m going to kill you, _Stark_.” As if it was Tony’s fault, and then: “Stop bad-mouthing and _do something_.” The blast burned the skin of his right flank and Pietro contorts himself the best he can, to touch and yet not touch the damaged area.

Tony knows how to help a teammate down, but burns aren’t his specialty. He doesn’t even think about the consequences — frankly, he doesn’t care — when he hits the comms and asks for assistance because Quicksilver is down, _repeat:_ Quicksilver is _down._ He wonders how much it was his fault and he already feels like shit: The weapon was his and he kind of re-started the discussion. Soon Carol invades the lab, literally flying as the door opens. Jess comes right after, followed by, of course, Hawkeye and Captain America. He’s pretty sure he can hear Romanova and Thor coming too. Carol stops for a moment, looks at Pietro — who is trying not to scream again, even more now that his body must’ve been trying to heal the blast as fast as it can — and then at Tony. Honestly, it looks bad. The weapon is also close to Tony and that makes everything worse, but she isn’t thinking of that ( _and Tony is glad, so glad he could kiss her, though kissing and doing other things kind of created this whole problem_ ). She breathes in and out, makes a face at the smell that fills the lab and lands on the ground. By the way she looks at Pietro — wearing Tony’s shirt, hair damp with sweat, and Tony’s love bites on his neck, fading faster now that his body is healing the damage on his leg —, Carol is ready to flip _the fuck out_. Just like Steve and Hawkeye, who enter right after and freeze at the door.

Jess is much more professional: she asks Tony what happened and nods when Tony tells her what exactly happened and that Pietro needs immediate help. Then, Natasha enters, looks at the scene, narrows her eyes at Tony and at the weapon so close to him and approaches Pietro, kneeling near him to consider the bruise. Thor is right next to her and he is the one who takes Pietro to the infirmary, the redhead super spy right after him, meaning she is all business and thinks Tony is shot Pietro in the leg. Which he didn’t, he tells Jess, who only nods and says she believes him. Everyone else is just looking at him and that’s when he remembers he’s naked. “I’ll put some clothes on and then I can explain.”

Steve finally recovers and his eyes narrow the same way Nat’s did not long ago. “Good. And maybe you can start with how the hell this happened.”

There is a pause, faster than a heartbeat, and then Tony smiles sheepishly and says: “That depends on what ‘this’ is.”

Nobody finds it funny but Jess.

.

This is how the Avengers get involved: The reporters are all silent when Steve finishes telling them what happened. He leaves some parts out of his statement, like the fact Tony was naked and they had had sex, but it doesn’t change the fact he is super embarrassed and Tony will never hear the end of this. The way he punctuates Tony’s name and superhero alias give him all the clues that Steve Rogers is disappointed and also pissed at Iron Man.

Tony isn’t at the press-conference; he’s actually next to Pietro, who is lying on the infirmary bed, sleeping thanks to the amount of drugs they had to give him so he wouldn’t feel the nerves and muscles of his leg healing — and Tony isn’t capable of _not_ wince as he thinks that. It must hurt like hell. Tony doesn’t exactly wants to be here, but Natasha told him that it was his lover there so he had to stay and Thor was right next to her and nodding, being all menacing, so it was the best option.

They aren’t sure how TMZ discovered about the affair and Pietro’s injuries. Tony doesn’t want to know, but they had to make a statement after they alluded it was a case of domestic violence, which is unacceptable and completely false. The worst, however, is that everyone decided to comment about the press conference. He’s receiving thousands of new messages, from different people, and promptly ignoring them. He is also trending on Twitter and received enough critics on television by the conservatives for him to get billionaire again when he ( _because he will, Pepper is making sure of that_ ) starts processing people for discrimination. Pietro and Tony, as a couple, are also trending on Twitter and, according to his Google searches on his name and the words “tumblr”, they have enough blogs of them as a couple for a life time. Facebook has its groups too and Tony would think that is all pretty funny if not the fact Wanda or the X-Factor team ( _aka Lorna_ ) Pietro joined a few months ago hasn’t pronounced yet. There must be a bet going on about whom will kill him first: Wanda or Lorna.

A reporter finally speaks out: _“Do you really expect us to believe in this?”_

Steve swallows and looks at Natasha, who, unblinking, states that Tony and Pietro will talk about it when they are ready and when Pietro has fully recovered. A press conference. Just the two of them. Without fighting. With much love and respect for one another. She doesn’t say the last things, but Tony can hear it anyway. He feels like crying, because of the people he doesn’t need against him, one of them definitely is Natasha. _“And how does it feel to have two prominent Avengers in a homosexual relationship?”_

Steve has the answer for that: _“We support every type of love.”_ Tony flinches at this last word and, as if knowing about it, Steve corrects: _“And attraction. What is going on between the two of them is only their business.”_

Tony hears a snort right next to him. When he looks up, Pietro is glaring at the television. “Hey”. He says, trying his best to not sound awkward.

“Stark.” Pietro greets like he normally does, though his voice is slurred because of the drugs. “What is the meaning of this?”

Tony winces and looks to the TV again before scratching his head: “TMZ found out and published the story.”

For a fast guy, Pietro takes a time to make the connection and then groans in a way that makes Tony smile. “Why didn’t you leave me to die at your lab?”

“Well, first, you were only shot at your leg. You didn’t even bleed. Second, I don’t think your family would approve that.”

A third voice answers his comment, making they both freeze: “Indeed. We would _not_.” Only then the alarms around the tower go off, but it’s too late. By the window, imposing and surprisingly _bald_ , Magneto glares at then.

.

This is how the Avengers get involved for real: It says a lot about Pietro’s condition if he can only glare at his father, who enters the room and observes Tony and his son like a hawk. He dresses himself in all black now and his new costume shows his muscled arms that are so different from the lean form Pietro and Lorna have. “Pietro.” Magneto says, nodding. The alarms and television turn off and _holy shit_ , Magneto is really there. Tony feels himself sweat.

“Father.” Pietro glares and is probably thinking about killing the man. His legs twitch and Tony decides to do something and position himself in front of Pietro, activating his armor, the face plate open so he can make the statement he is not fighting, but will do it with necessary.

It’s a bad idea, because he is _Iron_ Man for a reason and pretty much human underneath his armor, but if there’s going to be a fight he’ll make sure it isn’t between father and son. He knows Magneto killed his own son once, smashing metal on him until Pietro’s body stopped moving, and now that he’s back at being his old evil self, there’s no guarantee something terrible won’t happen — to be sincere, it would happen anyway even if he was still on the X-Men. Besides, the moment he broke the windows and entered the infirmary, Tony’s alarms alerted the other Avengers. The man probably blocked all entries and locked them on this room if the metal that finishes closing the windows is a good clue as any, but help will get here soon, so he just needs to stall.

Things get a little worrying when Magneto glares at Tony and, suddenly, he understands he isn’t here for Pietro. “ _Stark._ ”

Shit.

“That’s a lot of hate there.” Tony says, eyebrows shooting up as he smiles. “Hello to you. What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you.” Magneto explains, voice still dripping with poison.

“Him?” Pietro asks, and sounds a little offended. And hurt. Oh, the daddy issues.

Magneto’s attention turns back to Pietro and he crosses the room slowly, pushing Tony’s chair towards him so he can sit by his son’s side. Tony skids across the room until he is at the feet of the bed, the carpet causing friction against his armor’s legs and the sound produced makes him hold his breath. It feels horrible to be moved like that, like a chess piece. Tony shivers inside his armor, thinking of all the bad things this guy could do to him; all the bad things he already did. Pietro moves a little away from the man, because, wow, evil father here, and looks at Tony as if to ask what in seven hells it’s going on. “Yes, Pietro. _Him_.” Magneto finally says something. “After all, he was the one who did this to you.”

“I _didn’t_. TMZ is _lying._ ” Tony says and sits by Pietro’s side, still at the feet of the bed because he got the clue, thank you very much, and curls his hand on one of Pietro’s firm ankles. He caresses it a little, without really noticing until Magneto’s eyes follow his hand while he does it, pondering about something. The man blinks and then turns to Pietro. “I don’t know how this happened.” He starts. “I didn’t even know you had other preferences towards men, but I think you are making a terrible mistake.”

Pietro, dryly, tells his father he figured it out last night. Tony shouts at him, offended, but neither father nor son look at him. At last, Magneto approaches his son and puts one of his hands on Pietro’s, who flinches at the contact but does not deny it. _Daddy issues. Daddy issues everywhere_ , Tony thinks and decides he can’t say much, since he has his own issues with one Howard Stark. “There are much better men for you to date.” Magneto says slowly, softly, acceptingly. It’s all very disturbing, to tell the truth. “And they are much younger too.”

“Oh God. I’m not _that old_.” Tony shrieks, making Magneto turn his attention to him for a moment. “Seriously, I’m not. I mean, Steve is older than me.”

“That is an example of a good man, right there. He is not a mutant, that is true, but he is a better man than Tony Stark will ever wish to be.” Pietro blushes furiously at that, as if reality finally dawned on him and he is now understanding that his terrorist father — who neglected him; who saw him as the least powerful of his children; who killed him and triggered Wanda to destroy her own species; who would never be proud of Pietro — is now trying to make him break things up with the guy he’s fucking so he can start dating _the_ Captain America. Tony’s blushing too because, wow, talk about embarrassing. He so wished _not_ to be here. Also, the Avengers are super late. _Where are they?_ “It was an accident. And we’re not dating.” Pietro blurts out, as fast as he can. It takes some time, considering he is Quicksilver, but he says it. Must be the drugs. And the shock.

Magneto looks at him as if he pities his son. “Pietro, you two are having sex. He is by your side after he hurt you.” Yep, he bought the whole TMZ story. “He is touching you right now even though I could rip his arm off.” The calm he says this is so great Tony feels himself freezing. Seconds later, he misses this particular tone of voice _so fucking much_ and wishes it to come back quickly to him when Magneto menacingly says: “And if he moves his hand further, I’ll do it.” Tony decides to stop touching Pietro.

“We are _not_ _dating_.” Pietro repeats, slower. “We are just having _sex_.” Pietro answers his father, rolling his eyes as if he was a teenager explaining to his father why he was making out with the girl next door and that, yes, he’ll use protection when they get to third base. “ _And listen to me_ : it was an _accident_. I threw his armor’s arm on the ground and it _shot me_.”

“Fine, believe what you will about this accident.” Magneto says and, Jesus, he doesn’t _relent._ “It was still his weapon, let me remind you, _but_ —” He says and his grip on Pietro’s pulse become firmer, as if he was assuring his son of something. “—I will no longer touch in this subject of who hurt who. Let us go back to your relationship with Stark.” At the mention of his name, Tony sends another message to the Avengers, because this is getting seriously embarrassing. Also, Magneto totally bought TMZ’s version and this is worse. “Just sex never works out, Pietro. It didn’t for Rogue and I, it won’t work for you.”

Pietro snorts and one of his hands make a dismissive movement, or at least tries to, since it barely visible from where Tony is. “So you can have sex with all the girls who are your daughters’ ages, but I can’t be with Stark. A man younger than _you_.”

Magneto’s lips become a thin line and Stark uses this moment to casually find out why the hell his team isn’t destroying the walls and taking this guy away from his son. The GPS says they are at least trying, but Magneto is probably making extra hard to break the metal. He must be bending and mending it right after their attacks. It means, at least, he won’t be able to hold on to this long enough. He’ll get tired, so he’s making this a short visit, which is great news. “So you at least admit you are in a relationship with this man right here.” Magneto says and Tony looks at him, not sure what his expression is.

Pietro only rolls his eyes. “It’s a way of saying you have no right to tell me what to do when you do _worse_.”

“Anna Marie is a respectable X-Men. A mutant. A strong ally. A beautiful woman.” Magneto’s voice is stern — a warning to say he won’t tolerate his son talking bad things about his ex… Girlfriend? Girlfriend. Probably. Pietro, however, is a little _shit_ , for the lack of better word, because he scoffs at his father’s description of Rogue and says: “She is Mystique’s _daughter_. And she isn’t respectable anymore if she dated _you_.” He rolls his eyes again and mumbles something Tony is pretty sure is ‘Or Gambit’ and, shit, they are going to die inside this room. They are going to die and no Avenger is here to back them up. They are going to die and it will be all on Pietro, _again_ , who clearly doesn’t know you don’t piss off evil terrorists when they have the upper hand and your booty call fights in an armor made of _iron_.

“Pietro, _stop_.” He advises, and it’s a bad idea to start talking now because soon Magneto looks at him. He feels his armor getting tighter and hopes it’s only paranoia. It has to be, because he doesn’t want to die like this.

If he survives this encounter, he’ll be mocked forever and will change his name to Plastic Man, but Tony will never _ever_ use Iron again. “Uh, so.” He says and normally Tony is an eloquent man. He hears the sound of metal being hammered upon and thanks God and/or whatever else deity that is looking out for him. Thor is here, the Avengers are breaking in; this, whatever it is, will be over.

“Break things off.” Magneto says and recoils a little, fighting not to wince. Rumor has it that he isn’t as strong as before and, by the way Pietro’s eyes burn with _something_ Tony doesn’t know how to start naming it when he notices his father’s reaction, he heard it too. Not only that, he just gave Tony the confirmation he needs it.

“This is none of your business.” He says, a little too loud, a little too confident. The Avengers will have his back in a matter of seconds, he reminds himself and gets up to confront Magneto. “I do what I want and your son too.” Tony thinks of making a joke about how’s he doing his son, but Pietro will still be around later and he too doesn’t mind killing people.

Magneto doesn’t seem fazed, but, then again, that’s not surprisingly. Not as much as his bald head and his black costume. That wasn’t expected _at all_ and now that he is in front of him, Tony thinks he’ll never get over it.

“ _Stark_.” Pietro says, a warning, and Tony doesn’t understand why Pietro would ask him to back down now. They are going to capture Magneto and Pietro was saying worse things not long ago, anyway. He chooses to ignore him and keeps staring at Magneto. His face is blank and that, too, isn’t unusual.

“You are brave, I concede that.” Magneto says, finally. “Yet, you are pushing your lucky. I could kill you.”

“ _Please_.” Tony says and rolls his eyes. “You’re barely managing to keep the rest of _my_ team outside. You’re going to have a nosebleed if you keep up and everyone here knows this. You’re _done_.”

Magneto’s hand move and Tony feels himself being flung against the opposite wall. He breaks it with his body, just a second after he was able to activate his helmet — the main reason why he is alive. He looks up, his body on the floor of the hallway and everyone is looking at him with a surprised expression. Logan, Thor and Natasha are the first to regain the composure and attack Magneto, even though Wolverine and Mjölnir join him right after. “Should’ve gutted him when I had the chance.” Logan growls and Tony agrees with it.

Steve is still looking at him, unmoving, not fighting or trying to. “Tony, what did you—” But Tony misses the rest of his disappointed remark as he is, once again, flung back into the room. He hears Pietro scream, Natasha’s bullets flying all around him and Steve telling Clint to _kill Magneto_.

Then, he can’t hear anything else. His ears stop working, the pressure so strong he can’t hear his screams, though his throat feels raw. His whole body is smashing against the armor and Tony prays — actually _prays_ — it won’t open because of the pressure. He wants to move, wants to stop, but his armor does not belong to him anymore. Jesus, Tony is going to die because he slept with Pietro. Tony is going to die because when he saw Magneto’s blank face, he didn’t notice what Pietro, Magneto’s _son_ , noticed it.

That’s his face when he is beyond rage, when he looks at the world and sees nothing but _humans_ and mutants doing nothing. When he looks at a human, adult or not, and feels nothing but rage because, by existing they are oppressing his species. That’s his face when he’s about to murder someone or do something worse.

He thinks of Steve and thinks of Pepper. He should have loved her better.

Tony wishes he could have loved Pietro, because dying for someone you love is better than dying over a good fuck, but it’s too late, too late, too—

—He crashes against a hard object and gasps suddenly. Air fills his lungs and his eyes sting with what could be tears. There is blood coming off his ears and he can’t hear shit, but he seems to be alive. His vision is blackened, he’s pretty sure he pissed himself and his entire body is shaking, his bones limp inside the armor. Tony’s helmet suddenly flashes lights that hurt his eyes, probably making loud noises as it asserts the damage. Tony is glad he can’t hear them, because he’s pretty sure he would have a panic attack. It’s hard to breathe now that he is capable of it and he can’t move. He has a headache. His ears are killing him. He can’t— _he can’t_ _move_. Tony screams again, trying to reach _someone_ so that they can save him. The lights dim out and his vision begins to come back slowly.

He— He is _flying_. Tony is flying. Clouds and buildings and grey areas. He can’t move and he’s pretty sure he’ll collapse when he’ll be able to, but he’s _flying_. His whole body is reverberating with something Tony knows ever since he was little — engines. It calms him down for a moment, enough for him to assert his situation and he finally understands.

He is flying. And he can’t move. Engines all around him.

Magneto just used his powers to magnet Tony to a _plane_.

_Son of a bitch_.

.

This is how it ( _doesn't_ ) ends: Tony gets better, Pietro gets better and they fuck again. It’s a bad idea, everyone tells them this, but as Pietro enters the Tower and pushes Tony to the elevator he doesn’t look at anyone, even though they groan and pray nothing bad happens. It probably won’t since they don’t argue anymore even if there’s too much to be said.

Tony doesn’t like to know everyone knows they are having sex, but he doesn’t want to stop either. A part of this is to spite Magneto, because _fuck him_.

Pietro rides Tony, clenching every time he sinks on Tony’s cock, and Tony loses control, flips them over and only stops when they are both done for the night — or at least Tony. He also may be having a heart attack because he is not that young and Pietro has too much stamina. Pietro likes it fast and rough, kind of like his own personality, and there is no sentiment while they do it. It’s all about the pleasure and a part of Tony is curious to know if he ever loved anyone enough to stop going so fast. He knows Crystal and Pietro were as bad for each other as they were good, but their relationship seems to have ended ages ago. It makes Tony wonder if Pietro’ll ever stop fucking him if he gets bored or loses interest. He hates this idea a little, because that’s what he did practically his whole life. Leave before you get hurt — the women of his life taught him that.

Jesus, they are terrible for each other and they’ll go down in flames to the point they’ll never look at each other again without feeling regret and rancor. _Not today_ , Tony thinks and collapses on the bed. Pietro is just as silent and Tony knows he’s thinking the same thing. Seconds later, he gets confirmation: “We'll end up worse than Scott Summers did.” Pietro deadpans, casually, as he gets up to leave to his own apartment — the one Tony never has been but hopes to fuck Pietro in all the rooms one day. And he stops thinking about it because _one day_ sounds like a promise, like compromise.

“I have a pretty good insurance. And I’m sure this already happened to me.” Tony answers him. “And if you break things up with me now, not long after your dad told I was a bad idea, Magneto’ll be proud.”

Pietro smirks, flashing his teeth at Tony, before getting back on the bed and straddling Tony’s lap again. “We wouldn’t want that.” He comments.

Tony’s pretty sure he can’t get it up anymore, but that won’t stop him from fucking Pietro with his fingers. And maybe with his tongue. It’s been a while since he did oral sex on him and Pietro always writhes in that way that gets Tony hard again. “Not at all.” Tony agrees and pushes Pietro’s body until he is straddling his chest. He did this many times with women, laying down and giving them oral, but with a guy it may be the first time — he doesn’t really remember. Pietro seems willingly to test this new position, however, so they’ll be fine. “That’s why we’re going to keep fucking.”

“Do not say such a filthy word.” He says, referring to ‘fucking’, but doesn’t disagree.

.

There’ll be no love songs about them, because this isn’t about it. This is attraction and interest and a series of bad decisions they are notably famous for doing and choosing. But there is beauty on fire and they both know how to rise after they’ve been turned into ashes. And, as Craig Bruce well says: “Nothing surpasses the beauty and elegance of a bad idea.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have been writing this story for a long time. And when I finished it the first time I noticed I was completely disregarding domestic abuse. For that, I am sorry. It took me even longer to finish modifying the parts so this wouldn't happen, but I decided to do it all last night so I wouldn't just forgot about the modifications.
> 
> I wish I had developped more the "It was an accident" thing on the Magneto's part, but that wasn't the focus. Besides, I like the idea of Magneto googling his children now and then and reading TMZ articles and half-believing them. I swear I'll write about it one day.
> 
> Sorry, also, for the lack of Wanda and/or Lorna. It would get too extensive and the focus was Magneto. Maybe next time I'll write about Lorna and Wanda's reaction. It should be fun!
> 
> Finally, the opinions of the characters are not my own and unreliable characters exist for a reason.
> 
> PS: Hope I got TMZ's news style right!
> 
> **Edit:** I decided that _This is How_ is the first installment of _Velocity is speed with a direction_ , a series of oneshots that are basically everyone/Pietro. So, if you want to read anything with Pietro, please suggest a ship! I'll be glad to (try to) write it for you~


End file.
